musicbeefandomcom-20200215-history
The Anatomy of MusicBee
MusicBee has a flexible interface, but is not completely modular. Here's the default view that you get on first installation. Follow the links to learn more about each piece. # # Navigation Panel # Now Playing Panel # # Main Panel Typical components of the main panel are: # # (optional, Track Browser shown) # Your # # (optional, not shown) Other things that can be shown in the main panel include visualizations, web pages, and embedded Theater Modes. Toolbar By default, the toolbar contains: Back, Forward and Refresh buttons allow browser-like functionality. This box will show what node or playlist you're viewing, including any active filters. Can be directly edited to navigate to locations on your computer (e.g. C:\Music) and some library categories (such as Music). MusicBee includes a web browser based on Firefox, so you can also enter a URL here. (If the left panel is hidden, clicking this box will open the panel, and an ellipsis button must be clicked to edit this field.) Opens the . Provides basic and advanced search functionality for the library. Custom Toolbar Buttons Configure Layout Menu The configure layout menu allows you to select how you want to view your library, show or hide a couple of handy navigation tools, and save layouts you've configured. *Show A-Z Jump Bar *Show Track Browser *Artwork *Album and Tracks *Track Detail *Custom Views * Navigation Tools Will allow you to jump to a particular letter in your library, according to whatever tag you have it sorted by. Right clicking on the jump bar you will give you the option to use multi-character searches (multiple letters clicked within a certain time period) or display the jump bar vertically instead of horizontally. The Track Browser will filter your library according to the tags you select. Library You have three basic options for viewing your library, which are explained in detail on their own pages: * Track Detail View * Album and Tracks View * Artwork View These are selected from the accessed via the . Status Bar On the left-hand side, this shows the number of tracks in the current view, their total size in KB, MB, or GB and their total duration. Clicking this information changes the way the duration is displayed (HH:MM:SS vs decimal numbers). During processes such as syncing with a device or organizing files, relevant information is displayed on the right-hand side, with an X to terminate it. Double clicking here will usually bring up a dialogue box with more details on the process. Bottom Panels There are three things that can be in a bottom panel, each of which also has another possible location: *Playing Track Panel: to activate it, go to the > Playing Track Panel and check "Show in the Bottom Pane." Once activated, it will have a show/hide button just like the right and left panels. (The alternate location for this is in its own tab.) *Now Playing List list: the Now Playing List can be shown here, separate from the Now Playing Panel. *Tag Editor: The tag editor can be displayed as a bottom panel instead of a floating window. If all three of these are present, they will be displayed in this order (top to bottom): *Tag Editor *Now Playing List *Playing Track Panel Sidebars There are supplemental panels, or sidebars, available on either side of the main panel. These can be hidden or retrieved via the arrow buttons in the bottom corners of the MusicBee window (in line with the ). By default, if you move your mouse to the edge of the screen while a sidebar is hidden, it will pop up. You can disable this behavior by right clicking at the top of the pop-up and checking Disable Auto-Open. Left Sidebar The left sidebar is primarily for navigation. You can choose what nodes and subnodes you want to display via Layout Preferences. There are several optional components that you can display in the left sidebar: *Library Explorer: opened with the vertical show/hide button at the bottom of the panel, or by right clicking in the left sidebar. *Artwork: you can choose to display album art or artist photos by right clicking in the left sidebar. *Now Playing List: the now playing list can be moved to the left sidebar by itself, separate from the rest of the Now Playing panel. *Now Playing Panel: you can choose to move the whole Now Playing panel (see below) to the left sidebar. This disables the other left sidebar options, except for Library Explorer. Right Sidebar The right sidebar is primarily for displaying information about playing or selected tracks. Right sidebar components include: *Now Playing List *Track Details *Lyrics *Album Art *Player *Wavebar *Spectrum Visualization The right sidebar can also be converted into a floating window (essentially the same as the Compact Player). Right click at the very top of the panel, choose Panel Dock, and then Show in Floating Window. This is also where you can choose to move the panel to the left sidebar. Player Contains playback controls such as play/pause, volume, shuffle, and repeat. Displays track info and progress bar. Caption Bar MusicBee offers two possible ways to use the normally empty space in the caption bar, if you want. Menus By default, MusicBee's program menus are accessed through the MusicBee button at the top left. If you prefer a traditional menu layout, go to Layout Preferences. You can choose to display the menus in the caption bar or just below it. The Bee icon contains another menu with commonly used entries from other menus, to save you a few clicks. Tabs MusicBee's tabs (and new tab button) can be displayed in the caption bar. This is also configured in Layout Preferences. (In order to do this, the menus MUST be behind the button.) Category:Customization Category:Guides